Mature women's experiences of higher education: lessons for nursing

Abstract

There is an extensive literature on the experiences of mature women students in higher education. However, little attention has been paid to the experiences of mature nursing students, other than studies of retention and attainment. With the relatively recent entry of nurse education into the higher education sector in the UK, Australia, Western Europe and many Asian countries, it is important to consider the lessons that the higher education literature can offer for nursing. A major focus of this work is the double life load that these students bear because they continue to take responsibility for home and study. This load is experienced as greater than that for women in paid work and results from women's personal motivations to gain knowledge and self-esteem and improve their position in the labour market. In the case of vocational courses such as nursing, the two 'greedy institutions' of home and university are augmented by a third-the healthcare system in which their practical learning takes place. Patriarchal ideology underpins all three institutions and, despite mission statements emphasising inclusivity, universities are structured around the needs of traditional 'bachelor boy' students, and more recently 'spinster girls', and their inflexibility in terms of timetables, lack of childcare facilities and traditional teaching and assessment methods mean that women's life experiences are not valued nor their needs accommodated. Mature women report that they feel marginalised, and are unable to join in the wider social and leisure activities on offer at universities. In view of the need to improve recruitment and retention in nursing because of current and impending shortages of Registered Nurses, nurse education can learn lessons from this work and adapt its curricula to be more flexible towards the needs of mature women students.